"With Russia, it may not be so much the size of the army, but the fact that they're demonstrably willing to use it" - TRISTIN HOPPER

Russia makes less money per year than Canada. For 2016, its $1.3 trillion GDP was roughly on par with Australia, a country with one-sixth the population and less than half the square footage.
The country's 147 millions population isn't all that impressive either; Nigeria, Bangladesh and Brazil all have more citizens.
And yet, between hacking the U.S. election and intervening in Syria, Russia is utterly dominating foreign affairs.
Sometimes a derringer is just as effective as a smart bomb. Russia's military spending is only one tenth that of the United States. It has fewer military personnel than India, and the smoke-billowing flagship of the Russian navy has to be followed everywhere by a tug in case it breaks down. And yet, this all seems to be plenty for a country that is very good at commanding global influence on the cheap. Crimea was seized without firing a shot. The Syria intervention required only about 50 aircraft and cost only $500 million - exactly the same amount the U.S. spent on training Syrian rebels. With Russia, it may not be so much the size of the army, but the fact that they're demonstrably willing to use it. The country has sent its armed forces into battle no less than five times since the year 2000: In Chechnya, in the Caucasus border areas, Georgia, Ukraine's Donbass region and, of course, in Syria (Tristin Hopper, "Why Russia rules the world. A country with less money than Canada is calling the shots everhwhere", 24 HOURS TORONTO, Monday, January 23, 2017).